


a pale circle of light

by skuls



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, this is ridiculously short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 10:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6371569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuls/pseuds/skuls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Scully!” he calls after her. She keeps walking without looking back, chin firmly set.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a pale circle of light

**Author's Note:**

> whoops i wrote a poem secretly about msr and then i wrote a drabble based off that poem when i was bored last sunday. takes place post-'the truth'. original form here: http://oh-im-gonna-mess-this-up.tumblr.com/post/141373889098/a-pale-circle-of-light

The damp street isn’t very lit. She’d practically picked a ghost town to stop in. The result of being fugitives. She hadn’t spoken for miles when they stopped, slumped over in her seat. Mulder knows by now not to push her when she’s in this mood, closed off and in “I’m fine” mode. But still, he’d thought they could get through dinner.

“Scully!” he calls after her. She keeps walking without looking back, chin firmly set. It’d been fine - silent and tenacious, but fine - until a young couple with a baby came in. She’d fixed her eyes on a ketchup stain on the wall. He’d tried to look anywhere but at the family sitting at the counter. The mother had cut up his food and fed him while the father explained the items on the menu as if the child could understand him. Mulder slid his fingernail under the peeling edge of the laminated copy of the menu absently. Scully gnawed on a thumbnail as she stared ahead. Maybe if they didn’t think about it too hard, it wouldn’t matter.

The baby let out an earsplitting wail. Scully had stood and stormed out of the restaurant. For a second, Mulder had considered letting her go.

“Scully!” he says again. He catches up to her under a streetlight, grabbing her wrist. It’s a low budget light bulb, creating a pale yellow circle on the pavement. It’s late. Half the buildings around them are abandoned, and all are looming and dark.

“Don’t call me that,” she snarls fiercely. “What if someone heard us?”

He ignores this. “Are you okay?”

She laughs bitterly, and looks down at the street. “No, Mulder,” she says. “I am not okay.”

The couple exits the restaurant behind them, Mulder grimaces. He tries not to picture a baby with Scully’s eyes. He’s been telling himself that it’s his fault. If he’d been there, she wouldn’t have had to give him away. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispers in a tear choked voice. “I’m so sorry.”

He pulls her against him in that familiar position, her head just under his chin. “I’m sorry, too,” he says.

_Sorry for leaving. Sorry for not coming back. Sorry that you had to leave everything behind to follow me._

A car passes by, headlights painting the road a bright yellow. Scully pulls him into the shadows, out of the beam of light, on instinct. The car passes. She looks at the ground.

Mulder tips her chin upwards to meet her eyes. “We both have a lot of regrets,” he says. “We have to get past it.”

Once, there had been a baby between them, and they still managed to stand closer than this. Once, they were some form of happy.

“I know, Mulder,” Scully says softly. “I know.”


End file.
